I often find that my students spend a lot of time working on their ideas, and not as much time on the expression of those ideas. This is a problem: good ideas should be known to the world, but for that they need to be intelligibly expressed. The following is a guide on writing undergraduate philosophy essays, which focuses entirely on the writing part. (For coming up with the next great idea, I highly recommend 'Philosophical Heuristics and Philosophical Methodology' by Alan Hajek, available here.)

The numbered points within a section are given roughly in order of importance. Thanks need to be given also to Jessical Isserow and RJ Leland, who also have a great guide on how to write undergrad philosophy papers.

﻿Answering the question

Answer the question! Even otherwise brilliant essays that don’t answer the question will receive poor marks. Answering the question requires first of all understanding what the question is asking of you. If necessary, ask your lecturer/tutor if you’ve understood the point of the question correctly, and whether your intended answer is sufficient to address it.

Don'tjust summarise what other people have said (unless that's the point of the exercise). Your markers are usually not interested in summaries of other people’s positions, except insofar as that summary helps you in arguing for or stating your own position. (We are especially uninterested in summaries of the textbook or assigned readings!) Your marker wants to know what you think about the topic, and we want to know why you think that.

Don’ttalk about things which are not very relevant to your argument. You probably don’t have very words to waste on superfluous discussion. As a rule: if you can’t justify some section/passage/sentence/word as being useful in answering the question, you should probably delete it. Get to the point and don't waste words.

Don’ttry to talk about too much. This is a very common mistake. A 2000 word paper does not have nearly enough space to summarise and critically evaluate (say) five different philosophical positions. Focus on one thing you find most interesting and discuss it in depth. Doing this is much better than briefly skimming over a large number of different positions. Less can be more!​

Arguing clearly

Alwaysexplainany points you make which aren’t obvious. You’ll have to be the judge of what is obvious and what is not. But as a rule of thumb: if you think your lecturer would need to explain it to the class, then you should explain it to the reader.

Alwaysjustifyany points you make which aren't obvious. It's rarely ok to assert dubious or controversial claims without backing them up. Again: you'll have to be the judge of what's controversial or potentially doubtful. Always ask yourself whether you have given your reader good reasons to agree with what you’ve said. Never just say “I agree / disagree with ...” without going on to say why.

Make sure your ideas are expressed clearly and precisely, and avoid vagueness. Don’t settle for an explanation which is “close enough” to what you wanted, assuming that the reader will know what you mean. It shouldn't be up to the reader to work out your intended meaning — it’s your job to explain things clearly.

It often helps to include examples when you make your points. This will help the reader get a grasp of what you were aiming to argue for or explain. Try to use simple examples, and if you can draw a picture or find a nice way to visualise the point: do!

Always ensure that the relevance of a point is clear to the reader. Don't expect that your reader will know why a point you made is supposed to be important for your argument. There's nothing wrong with adding a sentence at the beginning or the end of a paragraph to explain why what you're saying is relevant to your overall argument. You should always be able to explain clearly why the things you are saying are relevant. (If you can't explain why it's relevant, then you should think about whether it really ought to be in the essay.)

Writing well

Use formal, concise language. Obtuse prose is exhausting to read. Style is not a substitute for substance, and pretty-sounding words are not a substitute for strong, clear arguments. (Alternative version: eschew superfluous magniloquaciousness.)

Watch out for ambiguity. This comes in two main forms: with the use of terms which take on different meanings in different contexts (esp. philosophical terms); and with the use of anaphor (words like 'it' and 'this', which refer back to things said earlier). Make sure it’s always clear which meaning your intend. Try reading your sentences back to yourself while considering whether there’s another way it could be interpreted. It's really easy to have ambiguous anaphors, so be really careful when you use the words 'it' and 'this'.

Use consistent terminology. Using the same words for the same things improves clarity immensely, even if it may sometimes look less stylish. For example, you might think that your essay uses the word 'real' too much, so you search through a thesaurus and start replacing the word 'real' with 'existent', 'actual', 'genuine', 'factual', 'true', and so on. But now your reader doesn't know if you mean the same thing by all of these words, and they might get confused. Don't worry if it sounds a little repetitive: your reader will appreciate the clarity.

Be wary of using too much jargon. Certainly don't use jargon unless you explain the meaning of the terms you’re using. You should only use jargon if it genuinely helps with the readability of the essay; don't just use it to make the points seem "smarter".

If you choose to use jargon, make sure you understand it. There are difficult concepts we’ll be using in philosophy, and it’s easy to misunderstand many of the technical terms that philosophers like to use. (Many philosophers misunderstand these things all the time.)

Explainhow you understand the meaning of technical terms. The explanation doesn't have to be very long, but it is often very helpful to have some explanation of how a technical term is being used -- and it's an excellent way of demonstrating to your reader that you understand the material. Furthermore, sometimes philosophical terms are used in very different ways by different people, so it helps to have a disambiguation handy.

Be wary of superfluous formalisation (e.g., unnecessary use of logical symbols). Only formalise your argument if it genuinely helps make things clearer. If you do choose to add some formal notation to your essay, make sure you do it well.

Generally, make sure you’re using your punctuation and grammar correctly. Are there enough/too many commas in that sentence? Should that comma actually be a semi-colon? Are all the apostrophes where they’re supposed to be? Did you remember to put a full stop (and only one full stop) at the end of the sentence?!

Avoid extremely long paragraphs, as they can be very difficult to read.

Avoid long run-on sentences that never end. There's no maximum number of words that a sentence should contain, but you should be able to get a sense of when a sentence is getting too long. (I generally try to keep my sentences no longer than 60 words, but even 45 words is getting fairly long.)

Introductions

Remember to state the question that you’re answering clearly and concisely. This should be done right at the beginning of the paper — possibly even with the very first sentence. The fact that your marker already knows the question you’re supposed to be answering is not an excuse not to state what the point of the essay is.

Remember to state the hypothesis that you intend to be arguing for. By the end of the introduction, I want to know what it is you're going to be arguing towards. Your conclusion should not be a secret, only revealed to those who get to the final paragraph! Some people find it useful to write the introduction last, after they've worked out exactly what they're going to be arguing for.

Signpost the broad structure of your essay. For example, say what you’re going to write in response to the question, and give the reader a brief guide as to how you’re going to argue for that conclusion. Make sure that the guide is useful to the reader, and not just some vague remarks on the topic you’re going to talk about.

Don’t include too much detail in the introduction. You should try to avoid explaining complex views in the introduction, and you should avoid including any complex arguments. Leave that stuff for the paragraphs that come later.

Don’t faff about with trite statements about the general topic. Avoid wasting the reader’s time by beginning the essay with “Metaphysics has been discussed for thousands of years and is very important to philosophers,” or "Since time immemorial, philosophers have wondered about the nature of the mind." Get straight to the point.

Conclusions

Remember to include a conclusion!

Do not introduce new points of discussion in the conclusion. Any points you have are either important enough to discuss in the main body of the essay, or they should be cut from the essay completely.

It's usually helpful to summarise your points in the conclusion. It doesn’t have to be a detailed summary by any means, but you might like to wrap up the paper in a satisfying way by stating in broad outline what you’ve argued for.

Critical evaluation

Don’t forget to critically evaluate your own position.Part of arguing for your position is considering potential problems that it may have. Look at potential objections and replies to your arguments.

Try to discuss the best objections that you can think of. Do not only talk about the very worst objections that one could make against you, as that's cheating (and your marker will know it).

Be a charitable interpreter. Most of the people you’ll read in the course of your studies are pretty smart, and because they’re smart, they (usually) don’t say stupid things. If you have read some philosopher's work and you think that what they said sounded stupid, then perhaps you should give it another go: maybe there is another way to understand what they’re saying which isn’t quite so unreasonable. (There almost certainly is!) Think about it like this: you wouldn’t want your readers to apply the most mean-spirited and unnecessarily critical interpretation to your own writing, so try not to do the same to others.

Be prepared to justify your criticisms. This means that you should not call another person's argument fallacious, unless you have really good reasons to back it up.Never simply state that it seems that your opponent has made a mistake, if you don’t go on to argue the point convincingly.

Avoid simple appeals to authority. The fact that some philosopher said a thing is not a reason to believe that thing. You markers want more than just a statement of what the philosopher said, but also why they said that thing, and whether you agree with those reasons (and why). An essay which simply says “Philosopher X concludes that scepticism is false” and does not explain how Philosopher X came to that conclusion and whether his reasoning is any good will not receive very good marks. You need to do more than just report on what others have said.

Structuring the paper

Make sure you explain things in the appropriate location.For example, I've read many essays where the writer talks all about (say) Realism, but only explains what they mean by Realism at the end of the essay! As a rule: your reader should never have to go back to an earlier point in the essay in order to understand what you meant.

Try to structure the main points of your paper into a coherent argument which 'flows' from one step to the next. Do not just discuss a collection of related points and be done with it — that is not an argument, it’s just a bunch of points. It may help to give yourself a very broad outline of the points you’re making, to help you decide the order in which you should present them. For example, compare the following two schematic essay structures. The second one is much better, and has the structure of an extended argument:

Introduction1st paragraph: step one of your argument2nd paragraph: step two of your argument3rd paragraph: step three of your argument4th paragraph: outline major objection to a STEP in your argument OR to your CONCLUSION5th paragraph: your response to the objectionConclusion

Referencing

Never forget to include a bibliography, unless it has been specified by your lecturer/tutor that you don’t have to. No philosophy essay is written completely a priori — there must have been at least one piece of work from which you got some ideas, so mention it!

Use an established bibliographical style. Harvard tends to be the easiest for philosophy.

Do not bloat your bibliography with superfluous references. For example, we don’t need 5 different references for a single, well-known and classic thought experiment like the brain-in-a-vat scenario or the possibility that we live in the matrix. As a rule of thumb: if you have one (or more!) reference for every sentence or so, then you’re probably referencing way too much!

Cite the correct source! For example, suppose you are talking about something that Plato said; e.g., that Plato thinks knowledge is justified true belief . Then, you should cite Plato himself —​ not someone who talked about Plato’s example. So, you should write: "Plato said that knowledge is justified true belief (Plato, Meno 70a)". You should not write: "Plato said that knowledge is justified true belief (Pojman, 1998, p. 28)".

You don't have to provide citations just for using jargon. Citations are for ideas, not for words.

Always try to put your footnotes at the end of the sentence, or at least the end of the clause. The only time you should not do this will be when putting the footnote at the end of the sentence would create confusion.

Miscellaneous (mostly style and grammar/spelling issues)

Include a title for your essay. An essay question is not a title!

Avoid pointless quotes from old, dead philosophers. Especially bad are vague quotes from Nietzsche or Wittgenstein — if the paper is not on a topic directly related to Nietzsche’s or Wittgenstein’s views, then it’s probably a bad idea to quote them.

Uncommon Latin phrases do not help either. For example, don’t write 'sic semper tyrannis' in your essay just for the sake of showing off your familiarity with Latin.

Generally avoid saying things like “In the readings/lectures” or “Earlier in the semester”. Write for a general audience, including people who may not have been in your class.

Avoid autobiographical remarks like “After much deliberation I concluded that”. Readers care about your reasons, not how long you spent thinking about the question.

A little bit of polish can go a long way: remove odd page-breaks, use consistent spacing, and in general, format the paper to make it just a little bit more readable and pleasant to the eye.

Pretty much every single word processing program has some kind of spell-checking function: use it!

If you are using Harvard style referencing, then the citation should go within the sentence, not outside of it. For instance, write “There are many trees (Bob 1998).” rather than “There are many trees. (Bob 1998)”. (Note the placement of the period.)

A quick list of peeves that a lot of people (including your markers) hate...

Don't forget the possessive apostrophe.

There’s a difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’.

There's a difference between ‘their’, ‘there’, and ‘they’re’.

There's a difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’.

‘Casual’ is not the same thing as ‘causal’.

Do not use ‘irregardless’ or ‘misunderestimate’ and other non-words. ‘Alot’ is not a word.

Use ‘could have’, not ‘could of’.

‘Redundant’ does not mean flawed.

'Reductionist' does not mean flawed. If you're going to call something reductionist, make sure you're using that term in the same way philosophers use it.

An oxymoron is when two juxtaposed phrases appear to be in some kind of conflict. It doesn’t make any sense to call an argument (or worse: a person!) an oxymoron. If what you wanted to say is that the argument’s conclusion is contradictory, then say that.

‘i.e.’ and ‘that is’ should only be used if the what comes before is exactly the same as what comes immediately after it.

It doesn't make any sense to say that an argument is true; arguments can be valid or invalid, good or bad, sound or unsound, but they can't be true or false. It makes even less sense to say that a person is true!

It doesn't make any sense to say that an "argument infers a conclusion" -- people infer things, arguments don't.